Under the Willow
by Konzelwoman
Summary: How will you find 'the one?
1. Chapter 1

Do you ever wonder if the person sitting next to you at the bar is 'the one'?

Maybe that person down the aisle, reaching for tomato soup with their back turned to you.

Or that person you bumped into on the sidewalk.

Possibly even the person you said hello to on the subway, just to be polite.

They could even be inches away and staring at the back of your head as you wait in line.

But how would you ever know? Are your paths meant to cross? And if they are, how do you know that they will?

Sometimes fate is just around the corner. Sometimes she's just down the street.  
Sometimes you miss her by just a few moments.

But when you find it, and boy will you know when you do, the world stops.

You can't breathe. Your vision starts to tunnel and all you see is the light at the end of it.

Go toward it.

Race toward it, and when you reach it, don't let go, because once you find your destiny, once it's staring you right in the face, that is when your life really begins.

Xxx

Katniss sat under the willow tree, tears brimming in her eyes.

Why was she doing this? She never cried. Of all the times to cry, she picked the girliest.

Gale had proposed.

She asked him to give her a moment, the dejected look on his face not lost on her before she turned tail and ran out the front door, letting her feet carry her wherever they wanted.

And here she was, under the willow tree her father used to bring her to.

It was their special place. It has been a fort, a chapel, a bunker for the underground resistance - whatever book currently held her heart, the canopy of the tree became.

Leaning her head back against the trunk, she looked up to the sky, a tear finally falling. "Ow," she said, rubbing the back of her head. Leave it to her to hurt herself in a moment like this.

She chuckled. "Sorry, Dad. Guess I'm not a super spy after all."

A gentle breeze blew, tossing the branches of the tree, tumbling over each other, the stars showing through the gaps, reminding her of her father's laugh.

"Dad, if you're listening, I need some advice," Katniss cracked, looking down at her hands in her lap. "I know I'm probably interrupting poker with Uncle Sid, but I…. I need…." She looked back up at the sky. "I miss you, daddy." Her voice was a broken whisper.

Gasping, she tried to calm herself enough to speak. It didn't help that the lowest branches wrapped around her in the breeze, feeling like a hug.

"Right. Advice. I, um, Gale asked me to marry him. And, as you know since…. Since you, I have sworn off of that. Sure, we were on and off, and this was out of the blue, so I could just blame that and-"

A gust of wind blew, silencing her word vomit. "Right. Sorry," she said softly. "I just don't…. I don't know. Do I need to let go? Do I need to look for someone to fill the hole? Is that even possible?"

Another gust of wind blew, less violent, and warm.

Katniss smiled. "Right. I hear ya. Thanks, daddy. I love you."

She rose, brushing off the seat of her pants as she calmly waked back to Gale's house.

The expectant look on his face nearly broke her heart. "Gale, I…. I have to say no."

"Oh." He looked like a wounded puppy. "I understand." He snapped the ring box shut and rose slowly, looking everywhere but her.

She grabbed her keys as he stepped out on the back porch.

Closing the door behind her, she slumped against it with a thud. "Ow." She chuckled again. "I get it, dad. Thanks."

There was that breeze, tossing the willow tree again.

She didn't need someone to fill the hole - she needed someone who made her whole.

Xxx

Peeta slumped against the trunk of the willow tree, closing his eyes to the gentle breeze, smiling.

This place had always been his fortress, his hide away, a home away from home, and that was just what he needed today.

His family was all in town visiting, and nothing out of the normal happened - his mother was overbearing as always, his brothers giving him hell like any good sibling, his nieces and nephews running around screaming as they played tag….

His smile faded and he opened his eyes slowly. His father's chair empty once again for the third year in a row.

"Hi, dad," Peeta said brokenly. "How's gin with Aunt Melinda going? I, uh, sorry to interrupt, but, something happened today."

He stared straight ahead, a log cabin style home on the edge of the meadow across from him lit up, the silhouette of a couple inside in the window.

"Mom let a girl sit in your chair today. Some girl she is trying to pawn off on me, telling me I need to further the Mellark legacy, do my duty."

He chuckled darkly.

"After watching you and mom, I promised I would never get married, unless I found the right one, and she just wasn't it, dad."

He looked at his hands in his lap as he twiddled his thumbs. "I'm beginning to think 'the one' may not even exist. Maybe I'm looking too closely, and I need to sit back and look at the big picture, stop looking and let it come to me."

His voice grew quiet. "Maybe I've already met her."

Rising, he looked up through the canopy, patting the trunk with his hand. "I miss you, dad."

As he walked back to the house, away from the meadow, he smiled.

He didn't need to worry about someone sitting in his father's chair, filling a hole at the table.

He needed to worry about making himself whole.


	2. Chapter 2

Peeta stood in line at the store the next day, waiting to check out his three items - a frozen dinner, a pack of beer, and a pack of gum.

He stared down at the frozen meal, claiming to be one hundred percent real meat, with a sigh.

Working all day in the bakery made his desire to cook a meal for one non existent, and leftovers were getting to be annoying.

Finally the woman in front of him was able to lay her things down on the little table of the express lane.

It was a public place, so it wasn't technically snooping. Or so he told himself as he surveyed her items.

Shaving cream, a razor, the same beer, and the same gum.

He smiled as he stared at the back of her head, admiring the intricate simplicity of her braid. The color of her hair intrigued him, and he wondered what kind of colors he would have to mix to achieve it.

The woman smacked her forehead with her palm, groaning. "I forgot something. Let the next person go, I'll come get back in line."

As she rushed off, Peeta was riveted to his spot. Her voice has been completely unexpected, deeper, huskier, sparklier than her slight form would make you think.

The cashier making grabby hands like a five year old brought him back and he handed over his items, stilling again when the woman appeared behind him in line, smacking a box of tampons down on the table behind the little bar that separated their items.

He wanted to make a joke, something about chocolate, make her laugh just once to hear the sound, but tampons were too daunting.

So without a glance behind he left the girl with the braid, talking to his dad as he drove home, waving at the willow as he passed by, seeing a lone figure buried in it's branches.

Xxx

Katniss laughed as she slumped down against the trunk of the willow.

"So I think I scared a guy today, dad."

She scowled as she imagined his response.

"No, I did not do that. I bought tampons." She couldn't help the giggle that left her lips, wanting to grab for it once it escaped.

Damn hormones.

Tilting her head back to rest against the tree, she smiled as she continued. "Yeah. He went rigid when I set them down. What is it about wings and strings?"

She laughed, recalling the event.

He had originally been behind her, and she had felt sorry about the frozen meal in his hands. She got that one last week. It was not one hundred percent real meat. But who was she to ruin the surprise for him?

At least he had good taste in beer. And chewing gum.

When she remembered the tampons, she was going to chance a look over her shoulder to try and glimpse his face, but she found herself chickening out, much like his frozen meal.

She rushed to the aisle and grabbed the infernal things, her face flushed in anger at herself, and slammed them down on the counter, finding herself right behind him.

He went rigid, then seemed hesitant, then he just left.

At least she got to admire his hair briefly. Dark blonde curls, slightly wavy, one curly-cue at the nape of his neck she wanted to pull and see if it sprung back.

She sighed, smiling at the memory. "If only finding love were that easy."


	3. Chapter 3

Katniss stared up at the offending branch with a scowl.

"Meow," the yellow blob perched on it's center blurted.

Narrowing her eyes at the cat, she watched its tail flick, its eyes boring into her, and laughed when it hissed at her.

She laughed even harder when she hissed back and it jumped, causing a few leaves to come tumbling down.

Her legs stretched out in front of her, ankles crossed as she wiggled her foot to a silent beat, Katniss leaned back against the willow, arms crossing over her chest with a satisfied smirk.

"Meow."

"Shut up, Buttercup!" She moaned, rolling her head for emphasis.

"Meow."

"You got yourself stuck up there, you little yellow blob."

"Meow."

"Don't stare at me like that. It's creepy, and doesn't make me like you any more. If possible it makes me love you less."

She spoke looking straight forward, the Garfield of a cat not deserving the effort of looking up.

Her feet still twitching to a mindless rhythm, they stilled at the snap of a twig on the other side of the tree. A throat being cleared made her roll her eyes.

"Prim, it's about time. Climb up and get the damn cat."

"Katniss, you know I am on my way to work," the small voice said behind her. "I can't get dirty. That's why I called you."

Slowly rolling her head as it rested against the tree, Katniss turned to face her sister. Prim had a hand on her hip and a glowering stare leveled her way.

"Fine," she mumbled, rising to her feet. "I need to get a ladder first."

Screwing up the nerve to ask Gale was hard enough, but it only made sense since you could see the tree from his here at his house. The house he had proposed to her in a month prior. Katniss gulped as she knocked on the door.

Walking in to a female face introduced as his date was another thing entirely. "Clove, this is Katniss," Gale said to the woman on the couch.

Katniss didn't like the look in the girls eyes as she looked Katniss up and down, a slight nod of her head as she raised a half full wine glass in lieu of a wave. The smirk she sent Katniss' way made her shiver.

"Well, I'll go look for a ladder. Anything to help Primmy."

Katniss scowled at his retreating form, his words echoing around her head causing her to sneer. He never volunteered help like that for her. She shook her head. Overanalyzing the past accomplished nothing.

Before she could fully process the feeling rising in her gut, but long enough to awkwardly shift her weight from side to side in the silence between her and Clove, Gale returned without a ladder, pulling work gloves on instead. "I can't find the ladder, but I think I'm tall enough to reach the bottom bough."

"Only if you jump," Katniss teased.

"How high?" Gale smiled at her, and things felt good again. Back to-

Clove was overtaken by a coughing fit, which was obviously fake.

Katniss sighed as Gale rushed over to her, letting herself out onto his porch, glad for the fresh air at the sound of the quick goodbye kiss behind her, Gale quickly joining her with a soft close of the door.

"So, Buttercup is up a tree, huh?" Gale asked as they made their way down the first few steps before looking up across the meadow, stopping short. "Looks like it's all taken care of, Catnip." Prim waved at them with a smile - her bright pink scrubs visible for miles, much like her blinding white teeth - cat in hand, before turning back toward her idling car.

A red pickup truck was just pulling away in front of her as she got into her little thousand miles to the gallon car with the infernal cat.

Katniss scowled after the foreign red vehicle. _Who the hell was that?_

Xxx

Peeta saw Prim as he drove past, making a U-turn and pulling up in front of her.

He hopped out as soon as the engine stopped, jogging up to Prim's side. "Hey! What's happening?"

"Peeta! Oh thank god! The epitome of 'the dog ate my homework'. My cat is up a tree."

Looking up Peeta saw Buttercup, perched like a songbird reluctant to fly.

"He knows you're going to the clinic," Peeta chuckled.

A few days a week Peeta volunteered at the local hospital, visiting a wide variety of patients. Today he was to take Buttercup to the children's wing. Peeta shook his head. That cat was one heck of a therapy animal.

As if on cue, the cat hissed at him right after the word 'clinic', making them both laugh.

Peeta walked up to the tree, the sounds of the annoyed cat escalating. "Oh, hush," he chided the feline before he gave the branch a good shake, only earning himself a comical kitty clinging for dear life. With one solid jump, he grabbed the lowest branch, and - thankful for the chin up competitions with his brothers - climbed up, perching within arms reach of the animal. One attempt to touch him and Buttercup decided to free fall, landing on all fours, and running up to Prim.

"Thank you, Peeta!" Prim said gratefully, scooping up a purring Buttercup.

Landing on both feet with a thud, Peeta smiled. "No problem. Just being a good citizen."

Prim and he shared a laugh as they waved to each other, and he headed toward his truck. As he pulled away he saw Prim waving to a couple on the steps of that cabin across the meadow, the woman looking at him as if he was death on wheels. He couldn't see much, but he could clearly see a scowl.

 _Who the hell is that?_


End file.
